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The debt crisis: Europe's fragile union

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A rose is placed on a monument inside the Athens' Polytechnic school, a day before the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising against the then military ruling junta in Athens November 16, 2012. A mass march to the US embassy is planned to take place on November 17 marking the anniversary of a student revolt that helped topple the 1967-1974 military junta. Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

People stand in silence during a march against eviction, one wearing a white shirt reading, ''Stop Evictions'', in Bilbao, northern Spain, Nov. 17, 2012. The Spanish government passed a decree suspending evictions of the most vulnerable homeowners unable to pay their mortgage. Alvaro Barrientos/AP

A protester covers her head in a plastic bag, meant to show that austerity measures are suffocating Greeks, outside Parliament during a union protest in Athens, Nov. 14, 2012. Workers across the European Union sought to present a united front against rampant unemployment and government spending cuts with a string of strikes and demonstrations across the region. Petros Giannakouris/AP

Spanish Luis Dominguez Quintana (r.), a member of the Mortgage Victims' Platform (PAH), puts vegetable soup in a plastic cup outside the nationalized lender Bankia bank headquarters, where protesters have camped over three weeks, in Madrid November 12, 2012. Juan Medina/Reuters

A police cordon separates demonstrators from the Embassy of the United States, right, in Athens on Nov. 17, 2012. Several thousand marchers are commemorating the 39th anniversary of a deadly student uprising against the then ruling dictatorship, with more than 6,000 police deployed in the center of the Greek capital. Petros Giannakouris/AP

45-year old office manager Irene Gonzalez of Spain stands by her front door while she waits to be evicted from her home, in Madrid Nov. 19, 2012. The police and court officials did not show up at the planned time and she still does not know if they will come later or on another day to evict her. Paul White/AP

A protester wears glasses with the euro and dollar symbols painted on the lenses before a protest march in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 25, 2012. Paul White/AP

A worker cleans the sign of the Bank of Greece from red and black paint, after riots in Athens, on Feb. 14, 2012. Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

Demonstrators wave Catalan flags during a protest rally in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 11, 2012. Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona to join a rally demanding independence for Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, on the Catalan national day. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A woman sits in a cafeteria and watches rail workers march inside the Barcelona Sants railway station during a protest during a partial national rail strike in Spain, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A woman leaves an unemployment bureau in Athens on Sept. 6, 2012. Greece's unemployment rate surged to 24.4 percent in June as the number of people out of work in June rose by 34,000 to more than 1.2 million. Petros Giannakouris/AP

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom speaks with alleged illegal immigrants at a detention center in Komotini town, northern Greece, Oct. 8, 2012. Greece is Europe's busiest transit point for illegal immigration, and authorities recently rounded up several thousand suspected illegal immigrants, holding them in newly created detention centers, built with the help of EU funds. Nikolas Giakoumidis/AP

A homeless woman lugs a roll of bedding past ships docked during a strike at Piraeus, the port of Athens, Sept. 26 2012. Petros Giannakouris/AP

A woman embraces a riot policeman in front of the IMF office during a protest against austerity in Lisbon, September 15, 2012. Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters

An immigrant pushes an empty shopping trolley past graffiti in a poor Athens neighborhood, January 30, 2012. Poverty has visibly increased on the streets of the capital of four million. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Francesco Francini, co-owner with his wife Donella Faggioli, of 'L'e'Maiala' restaurant in Florence, carries a plate on October 6, 2012. The couple launched the 40-seat restaurant allowing customers to barter food and goods for a traditional Tuscan dinner, as a way to encourage people to dine out despite the recession. Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

Riot policemen take cover behind their shields as they prepare teargas grenades during clashes with protesters in Athens' Syntagma square during a 24-hour labor strike, September 26, 2012. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

A commuter comes out of a closed metro station during a 24-hour metro strike in Athens, January 17, 2012. John Kolesidis/Reuters

Protesters surround Police vans close to Spain's Parliament during a demostration in Madrid, September 25, 2012. Andrea Comas/Reuters

A man walks near containers at a port in Lisbon, August 14, 2012. Rafael Marchante/Reuters

Traders look at electronic boards at the Madrid stock exchange, June 26, 2012. European shares edged higher, helped by a rise in heavyweight utility stocks, although traders and investors said any rally following a sharp three-session sell-off would be short-lived due to persistent worries over Europe's debt crisis. Susana Vera/Reuters

Pedestrians walk outside a pawn shop offering money for gold, in Athens, on Monday, Aug. 20, 2012. Greece's finance officials are seeking to finalize euro 11.5 billion in spending cuts necessary for it to continue receiving the international funding that is protecting it from bankruptcy. Petros Giannakouris/AP

Coal miner Hernan Taberna attends a speech of one of their leaders during a protest march in Langreo near Oviedo, Spain, Monday, June 18, 2012. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A passenger walk among rubbish and paper during a strike by the cleaning staff against budget cuts at Barcelona's airport in Barcelona, Spain, May 30, 2012. Spain's economy is contracting for the second time since 2009 and four years of stagnation and recession have pushed unemployment above 24 percent, the highest rate in the European Union. Manu Fernandez/AP

Commuters queue for a bus at the Cais do Sodre hub station during the first day of a partial strike by Lisbon's subway workers, May 17, 2012. Subway workers went on strike to protest salary cuts. Francisco Seco/AP

A police officer blocks the main door of the stock exchange where demonstrators burnt garbage during the general strike in Barcelona, March 29, 2012. Manu Fernandez/AP

A man reads newspaper collages during a trade unions demonstration against government economic measures and new labor reforms in central Madrid, on June 20, 2012. Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP

Lawyers tape their mouths and turn their backs on a government speaker at a solemn ceremony to mark the start of Italy's judicial year in Naples, on Jan. 28. Colleagues abandoned a similar ceremony in Venice, leaving their robes symbolically on their chairs. Italy's hundreds of thousands of lawyers planned a strike and nationwide demonstrations and threatened to block all judicial activity. AGN/Reuters

Firemen spray foam near Belgium's Pensions Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne's cabinet during a public sector strike in Brussels on Dec. 22, 2011. Belgian workers in public transport, schools, hospitals, and government buildings went on strike in protest of pension reforms in the new government's austerity plan to reduce the budget deficit. Thierry Roge/Reuters

An anti-austerity protester draped with a Greek flag sits in front of police guarding parliament in Athens on Feb. 11 during a demonstration on the second day of a 48-hour strike by Greek workers' unions. The Greek government told rebellious lawmakers to back a deeply unpopular EU/IMF rescue in parliament or send the nation down 'an unknown, dangerous path' to default and international economic isolation. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

A cat sits on top of a net as fishermen work near their ships at the port of Barbate, Spain, on Jan. 7. Hundreds of angry fishermen and their families are protesting an EU decision scrapping an accord that let them work in Moroccan waters, likening it to a death-knell for their economically depressed town. The fishermen are also staging a one-day strike. Emilio Morenatti/AP

Brussels' garbage men wave trade union flags as they block a major intersection in Brussels, Belgium, to protest against possible job losses and austerity measures on Sept. 22, 2011. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

A protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask during a rally against the ratification of a fiscal pact law outside the Reichstag, the seat in the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, June 29, 2012. Thomas Peter/Reuters

President of European Central Bank Mario Draghi listens to questions as the Euro logo is reflected in his glasses during a news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 6, 2012, following a meeting of the ECB governing council concerning the further strategies in the European financial crisis. Michael Probst/AP

Stranded passengers dozing on their suitcases and grumbling over cancelled flights because of strikes is a scene one might expect in France or Greece, but not in Germany, where good labor relations have been fundamental to its economic success.